Sascha Wilson
Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
A schoolboy escaped from a car trunk while his cousin was shot after Spanish-speaking suspects kidnapped them in Penal on Tuesday.
The 16-year-old Form Three student went with his 33-year-old cousin, an air- conditioning technician from La Romain, in his (cousin’s) Tiida to Penal to pick up two Spanish women.
When they arrived at a two-storey concrete structure at Jhulai Trace, Penal Rock Road, around 5 pm, a white vehicle stopped at the rear of their car.
Seven Spanish-speaking occupants, some armed with guns, exited and ordered them out of the Tiida. One of the gunmen then struck the teenager on his head with a firearm and forced him into the trunk of his cousin’s car.
The suspects ordered the teenager’s cousin to sit in the back seat. As the suspects drove off with the Tiida, the teenager made several attempts to open the trunk and about five minutes later, he managed to force it open.
The teenager got out, and as he ran through the bushes, he heard three loud explosions.
Meanwhile, the police responded to a report of a shooting at Seemungal Branch Trace around 6.30 pm and found the teenager hiding in the bushes. The officers searched the area for the Tiida and his cousin, but they were unsuccessful.
More than two hours later, the police received information that an EHS ambulance took a man with a gunshot wound to the Siparia District Health Facility. The officers went to the facility and met the teenager’s cousin. He reported that after the teenager escaped, he also tried to escape and struggled with the men. He managed to open the door and sprinted to freedom, but the suspects shot after him. He was shot under his right arm. He hid in the bushes and later flagged down an ambulance.
